1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording disk drive such as a hard disk drive (HDD). In particular, the invention relates to a recording disk drive comprising: a head actuator; a fixing member spaced from the head actuator by a predetermined distance; and a flexible printed circuit board attached to the head actuator so as to extend at least from the head actuator to the fixing member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A head actuator is incorporated in a hard disk drive (HDD) so as to change its attitude relative to a magnetic recording disk. The head actuator comprises an actuator block coupled to a vertical support shaft. Actuator arms are defined in the actuator block. A head suspension is fixed to the corresponding actuator arm so as to support a head slider at the tip end thereof. A first flexible printed circuit board is attached to the actuator block so as to supply a sensing current or a writing current to the head slider. The first flexible printed circuit board extends to the fixing member spaced from the actuator block by a predetermined distance.
Positioning holes are defined in the first flexible printed circuit board. Pins are designed to protrude from the surface of the actuator block. When the first flexible printed circuit board is attached to the actuator block, the pins are inserted in the corresponding positioning holes. The first flexible printed circuit board is thus positioned on the actuator block. The first flexible printed circuit board is then fixed to the actuator block with a fastening member such as a screw. A second flexible printed circuit board is thereafter coupled to the first flexible printed circuit board so as to extend from the actuator block to the head slider. The second flexible printed circuit board is integral to the head suspension. The head suspension and the second flexible printed circuit board form a so-called long tale head.
When the head slider is positioned, the actuator block intermittently repeats rotation around the vertical support shaft. The inertial force of the rotation forces the first flexible printed circuit board to vibrate when the actuator block stop rotating. This residual vibration is transmitted to the actuator block or the like. Reading and writing operation of magnetic bit data is hindered.
If the second flexible printed circuit board is integral to the head suspension, the displacement of the second flexible printed circuit board is particularly limited when the second flexible printed circuit board is to be positioned relative to the first flexible printed circuit board. Accordingly, the first flexible printed circuit board must be positioned on the actuator block at a higher accuracy prior to the positioning of the second flexible printed circuit board. However, a sufficient accuracy of the positioning of the first flexible printed circuit board cannot be achieved with the conventional positioning hole.